ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 45 



As every animai is supported through the me- 

 dium of the stomacli, a wool-bearing animal has 

 two demands, — to support wool and carcase ; 

 nor can either thrive further than nourishment is 

 afforded. Then how wrong to put large animals 

 upon a poor pasture, that produces but little 

 herbage, and tliat little, less nutritious ! 



Again, when they say it is easy to get a little 

 good one, — if they mean by a good one, one 

 which will produce a son better than his sire, 

 and a third better than a second, and a fourth 

 better still ; that is what I shall call a good one. 

 If such a one is easily produced, do not the 

 hungry, poor, oppressed tenantry, the great 

 national family, in the name of all that is good, 

 call upon them to do it? Why trifle with the 

 sacred wants and comforts of man ? 



Again, they say we cannot combine heavy 

 wool with a good carcase. I believe not with 

 long middles and high legs, or with whimsical 

 fanciful niceties. But to say they cannot be 

 combined- upon any principle is wrong : expe- 

 rience has proved we can do it with sheep that 

 are calculated to live and thrive upon poor and 

 middling soils. 



I am convinced it would be a valuable acqui- 

 sition, if males to get stock were all bred upon 

 poor and middling soils, and treated as common 



